Alexander Tet - Mint?

Cool! Great wear... used in commerce, and touched by a lot of ancient hands!

The wear and lighting makes it look like a Chubby Zeus... kinda later in his reign! Reckon, since Alexander declared himself God, that Zeus said he would relax a bit... take it easy, have a few brews... retire...

 

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Here's another with a somewhat curvier frame. Babylon Mint
*old photo (I have to start re-shooting these things)

 

After the death of poor Hephaestion, Alexander started to go of his rocker a bit. I can feel for they guy though; he lost he best friend ( and possibly lover) and never recovered.
I don't have any tetradrachms of the Lord of Asia to show off but I do have this measly drachm!

Alexander III ( The Great) posthumous drachm. Struck under Lysimachos between 310-301 BCE
Abydos Mint
3.87 grams

Again, I am sorry I can't help you with your OP coin

 

No prob on the help! I like challenges, and I will eventually get help or happen upon the answer. Good mystery... it is already 2300 years old, so, a few days, months, years of discovering the answer ain't gonna hurt the Tet!

True about Alexander kinda gettin' loupy...with all the drinking, travelling (jet-lag is a b...!), conquering an Empire, losing a buddy, new additions to the family, Heady with Power,etc...he was bound to get a bit CRACKERS... Lotta big changes in just about a dozen years...

 

Yeah, he regularly stayed up at night sippin on some Macedonian wine.
I read somewhere that some doctors think that Alexander may have died from alcohol poisoning or that alcohol may have made his condition much worse.
Sad stuff

 

It's too bad. Cuts a young man's life short. Maybe if he wasn't an alcoholic, he would still be around to this day; tell us the tales of conquering the near east.

 

But, MAN! WHAT A LIFE!!! Conquered the known world, all the exploits, etc...he had 10 lifetimes within his!!!

 

"Achilles was given a rare choice by the Fates. He could live a long life of obscurity, or a short life of glory"

That quote is Alexander's life in a nutshell.

 

BINGO! "If I were not BRIAN, I'd rather be Alexander!" (To bastardize a phrase of his regarding Diogenes...)

 

I always loved that story!
My personal favorite though is the Gordian knot affair.

All hail the Lord of Asia!

 

I use that all the time for business examples! Perfect Axiom: JUST DO IT!!!

 

He compressed so much LIFE into his lifetime... Albeit, it was a "short" lifetime:
He. Lived. Life. BIG!

 

Agreed!
I find it fascinating how his "post contemporaries" viewed him.
Emperor Augustus remarked when a guide insisted he view the tomb of the ptolemies (after he defeated cleopatra and Antony) "I came to see a King, not a row of corpses"


Or Caligula who took Alexander's breast plate and wore it triumphantly.
Caracalla went so far as to equip a large body of Legionaries in the Macedonian Phalanx fashion when he went on a rampage in Mesopotamia.
History is some fun stuff!

 

Agreed, read all of those stories, some great stuff! I love Ancients collecting because of the HISTORY. The coins are more of a placemarker for me to TOUCH that history! Love it! Alexander III is a passion of mine... as well as other great Leaders. However, Octavian was a bit wrong: Ptolemy I (and somewhat Ptolemy II), was an OUTSTANDING Leader!

 

Well, he had just defeated his great something granddaughter. So don't blame him to much! Though he did accidentally break off Alexander's nose!
I also love history, especially Ancient Rome, but Alexander is something special.

 

LOL, yeah, LOL, the nose thing! I thought that was Caracalla, but maybe it was Octo-Boy. I loved Augustus in history too, he figured it out, and built a long term Pax-Romana after settling the civil wars... However, I am a Res Publica guy...

 

It was the Divine Augustus who broke Alexander's nose.
I think that we could go on about Alexander the Great until they discover his tomb!

As you can probably tell, I am a Late Antiquity fanatic! I find it so interesting how the Crisis of the 3rd Century turned Rome into an autocracy. Perhaps I will delve deeper into that in another Siliqua post one day.........
Cheers!
Until then...."To the Strongest!"

 

Hey don't act like the only one here!

 

I unfortunately can't help figuring out the mint on yours, but I am quite enjoying this thread as I'm currently reading Philip Freeman's "Alexander the Great" and it has me really tempted to seek out another tetradrachm of Alexander. As such, I'll share my current example, a possible-lifetime/early posthumous issue that Price has identified as coming either from Pella, Alexander's birthplace.



Alexander III AR Tetradrachm. Pella mint. Circa 325-315 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, Zeus Aëtophoros enthroned left, holding eagle and sceptre; ΣΙ in left field. Mueller 1397. Price 236.